It’s no secret that backcountry
skiing has seen a surge in popularity. This overall trend is clearly visible on
Mt. Washington and around the Presidential Range, where I’ve been working for
nearly two decades. And while the numbers have swelled, the critical safety
messages being delivered to visitors have remained surprisingly consistent
despite huge changes in visitor use patterns.

In the early 2000s, Tuckerman
Ravine was primarily an ice-climbing destination until mid-winter, when the
snow finally covered up most of the ice. Few skiers were traveling beyond Tucks
and Gulf of Slides. The base road to the west side wasn’t consistently plowed
until 2004, and the Cog Railway hadn’t yet cleaned up the decades’ worth of
debris littering the tracksides, so almost nobody was going in that way beyond
a core group that was happy to put in extra miles in exchange for solitude.
Then springtime would roll around, the resorts would start to shut down, and
the annual ski orgy in Tuckerman would begin.

Fast forward to 2020. Skiers
are everywhere. Each weekend you’ll see several avalanche classes, and the
groups are dominated by relative newcomers to the sport. For contrast, in 2003
there were only seven Level One avalanche classes offered on Mt. Washington in
an entire season. Any given day now, however, you’ll see a constant parade of
skiers heading for the Sherburne Trail. Skiers are hitting the ravine itself
early and often, too, and runs like Left Gully and Chute that are skiable as
early as November now have numerous descents before Christmas. Huntington Ravine,
historically an ice climber’s destination, is almost as much a skiers’ ravine
as one for climbers. All across the Presidentials and even well beyond, skiers
are exploring throughout the winter months.

What might not be obvious to
everyone, but clearly helps Mt. Washington have its own unique identity, are
the invaluable partnerships that exist between government agencies such as the
U.S. Forest Service and New Hampshire Fish & Game; nonprofits like the
Appalachian Mountain Club and Mt. Washington Observatory; and volunteer groups
like the Mt. Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol and Mountain Rescue Service. These
groups all have their own missions but share the common thread of keeping us
safe, a goal that’s ever more important as the surge is showing no signs of
ending.

In 2018, probably the most
significant avalanche- related improvement occurred with the change from
slope-scale forecasting—where rangers rated the danger for each specific
avalanche path for only Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines—to range-scale
forecasting across the Presidentials, encompassing a much larger geographic
area and similar to the practice of other avalanche centers in the U.S. This
was not a hasty decision: as the oldest forecasting center in the country there
was a long and storied history behind the microscale forecasts. Overall this
change has been well received by the community, and hopefully the extended
range is helping people avoid avalanche trouble.

The core safety information
provided by the USFS snow rangers hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years. In
addition to reporting on the avalanche hazard, they continue to tell about bad
weather and unexpected events and to caution about long, sliding falls on icy
slopes and other common Mt. Washington hazards. The avalanche center website is
still the primary vehicle for delivering safety information to the masses, but
they also have increased the use of social media to keep people aware and
engaged. In the comment sections, you’ll increasingly find an open discussion
taking place between the snow rangers and the public, marking a shift from a
one-way safety information system to more dynamic, more visible two-way
communications, which includes the opportunity to submit observations directly
to the snow rangers.

I’m pleased to see the ongoing
evolution of the avalanche center. As an educator, I’m thrilled to see classes
filled to capacity with students new to backcountry travel. This tells me that
there’s a cultural shift taking place that is bigger than the expansion in
numbers, a shift where getting an avalanche education is now widely considered
an important step in being a backcountry skier.

The challenge, now as much as
ever, is in figuring out ways for the critical information to reach those who
don’t even know they need it. I doubt this challenge will ever go away
entirely. Ken Kesey once said, “In any given situation there’s going to be more
dumb people than smart people.” I don’t necessarily think he’s wrong, but I’d
like to think the backcountry community might become an exception to this rule.

—

Jeff Lane’s career on Mt. Washington began in 2002 as the AMC’s Hermit Lake caretaker. In 2006 he became a USFS snow ranger and met his future wife while sipping coffee on a Saturday morning at the snow ranger cabin. He left the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center in 2016 to become a part-time avalanche educator and full-time father of two. This essay first appeared in Backcountry’s Boundless Issue (#133).

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Comments

Thanks for the piece and the wise move to keep the beloved bowl quiet for this season. Plenty of good and safer days ahead for those who can show patience…and pause for those who have lost loved ones to the pandemic. This year is one for the books. Stay safe and dream of better adventures ahead.

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